Fic: Now You See Me
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Rating: PG-13 for cursing and werewolf violence
Length: ~7.5 k
Summary: Season 1 AU where Stiles is a ghost. For the Teen Wolf Reverse Big Bang. Artwork here http://puckboum.livejournal.com/5913.html
Scott couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him. He zipped up his hoodie and threw the hood over his head as he continued walking through the woods. It was right before the start of the school year and it was already starting to get chilly at night. Scott stopped short as he saw police lights in the woods up ahead. Technically no one was supposed to be in the nature preserve after dark, but it was a shortcut that Scott had been taking home for years. Scott headed deeper into the woods, changing his path just enough to avoid the police. He turned around often as he walked, still feeling the eyes upon his back, expecting to see a police officer behind him.
“You shouldn’t be out here.”
Scott whirled around towards where he thought the voice had come from, but he didn’t see anything.
“It’s not safe. He’s still out here,” a pale boy around Scott’s age stepped out from behind a tree. He was wearing a red hoodie and had short brown hair.
“What? Who are you?” Scott moved towards him, but he darted back behind the tree. Scott ran towards where he had last seen the boy, but there was no trace of him. He looked around, spinning in a circle, bewildered at the sudden disappearance of the boy.
All of a sudden he heard a howl and shivered.
“Run,” he heard whispered in his ear. Scott bolted.
After a few minutes he stopped to lean against a tree, wheezing as he reached for his asthma inhaler. He was only able to get in one huff of his medicine before he was tackled by a large dog, making his inhaler fly out of his hand. At least, he thought it was a dog, but then he felt it bite him. Scott went rigid with the pain, and then all of a sudden the dog was gone and Scott heard howling. Change that to wolf. Scott had just been attacked by a fucking wolf. He was never walking through the woods alone again.
Scott pushed himself off the ground and looked at the wound. It was oozing blood, making his pants stick to him from where the blood was dripping down his side. He pressed his shirt into the wound and continued on his way home, keeping a wary eye out for the wolf, all thoughts of a pale boy’s warnings gone from his head in the wake of his attack.
The next morning Scott realized he had lost his inhaler in the woods the night before. He groaned as he searched through his room for his back-up inhaler. Lacrosse tryouts were that afternoon and he wouldn’t even be able to take the field without it. Giving up, Scott figured he’d hope for the best.
He went into the bathroom to check his wound, hoping it’d be smaller than he remembered and it wouldn’t stop him from playing. Scott lifted up his shirt and looked at the bandage he had over the bite. It had some blood on it, but not nearly as much as Scott had worried there’d be. It hadn’t even gotten onto his shirt, which meant he wouldn’t have to deal with questions from his Mom when she did the laundry. He peeled away the bandage, wincing as the tape separated from his skin. He looked at the wound. There was dried blood covering it, so Scott took a wet paper towel and wiped it off. He looked down at his now clean skin and did a double take. There was nothing there but a raised scab, half the size of what Scott was expecting. Scott poked at it. He’d remembered the bite being twice the size last night and a whole lot deeper. Well, at least it wouldn’t stop him from playing lacrosse, even if his lack of inhaler might.
When Scott got to school Samantha came over to him, asking, “Did you hear about the body in the woods?”
“Oh, so that’s why there were all the police cars.”
Samantha gave Scott the same “you are an idiot look” she’d been giving him since first grade. They’d known each other since kindergarten, but it’d taken her a year to perfect the look. “Were you walking through the woods at night again? I told you there’s all sorts of animals out there. Don’t you remember that time Jackson’s dog got gored by a deer?”
“Uh, well, I was kind of attacked by a wolf last night,” he admitted sheepishly.
“There are no wolves in California. It must have been a rabid dog. Have your mom look at it and go for rabies shots.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Seriously, your mom is a nurse. Don’t you know that you should get something like that checked out right away?”
“Yeah, but that’s the thing. It was this huge wound last night and I was bleeding everywhere, but this morning, look.” Scott pulled up his shirt to show Samantha his bite.
“Uh Scott, the only thing I see is a tiny scar and your abs. Now put your shirt down, people are starting to stare. Namely, that new girl.”
“She’s cute, isn’t she?” Scott smiled shyly. “I gave her a pen in class and she smiled at me.”
“Oh my god, you’re such a dork,” Samantha sighed.
“Yeah, whatever. You’re just gonna have to stand back once I make the lacrosse team and have my very own fanclub.”
Samantha laughed. “I will believe that when you can run a lap in gym without needing your inhaler. And since when did you want to be Jackson? When he actually notices your existence he makes your life, our lives miserable.” Samantha poked Scott where his injured used to be. “C’mon. We’ve got chemistry.”
As they walked down the hall Scott heard Allison, the new girl, whisper to Lydia, “Scott’s pretty cute. It’s too bad he’s got a girlfriend.” He only heard Lydia’s reply of “Who?” before the bell rang, echoing in Scott’s ear as if it was going off right next to him. He winced in pain and put his hands over his ears until it subsided.
“You okay?” Sam was looking at him with worry. “I don’t think noise sensitivity is a symptom of rabies, but maybe you should have your mom check it out.” She pulled Scott’s hands away from his ears and examined them. “I don’t see anything wrong, so it’s time for chemistry.” She marched him into the classroom.
They sat next to each other so she poked him every once in a while to keep him awake. Chemistry was pretty boring stuff. Except for when they got to you know, actually do chemistry. With the chemicals and stuff. Scott wasn’t actually that bad at chemistry. He just found it kind of boring and a bit confusing with all the equations and whatnot. How was he supposed to know how calcium, carbon and oxygen combined? Each reaction was different than the other one.
Of course Sam just rolled her eyes whenever Scott said anything like that. “You’re supposed to remember. Harris gave us a list today of all the reactions we’re expected to know.”
Scott shrugged and gave her his usual smile. “Lacrosse tryouts are after school today. I’m nervous okay?”
Samantha just smiled and laughed. “Nervous about what? Worried they won’t remember where you sit on the bench? You know your asthma’s too bad for you to do much running around.”
“Well, maybe this time will be different. I’m feeling really good today.”
“Well, okay. I guess I can come and cheer you on. At least then Allison will finally know your name,” she teased.
Scott felt confident in the goal, watching as each ball came at him. When it was time for him to play it was like he could sense exactly how each player was going to move and countered them perfectly each time. He was amazed by how well he’d done, standing on the field in shock after the practice game was over.
“Oh my god, Scott! That was amazing!” Samantha ran up to him and enveloped him in a hug. “I can’t believe you did that!”
“Neither can I. I just, I don’t know, went with my instincts.”
“Well, good instincts. Let’s go get some pizza to celebrate. My treat.”
“Yeah, that sounds good. Let me just get my stuff.” Scott walked off the field, waving to Allison when she looked his way, blushing just a bit as he made his way into the locker room.
Once they were settled at a booth at the pizza place Samantha gave him a long took. “So…why didn’t you tell me you were on new asthma meds?” Samantha asked. “They’re really working well for you.”
“I’m not. I lost my inhaler last night when I was attacked by that wolf. And before you say anything, it was definitely too big to be a dog and it definitely bit me, even though there’s nothing there now. I have the blood-covered bandages to prove it.”
“Mmmhmm. Well, let’s go find your inhaler at the very least so that once the excitement over your bite dies down you won’t suffocate.”
Scott wolfed down his pizza in a way that only a teenage boy could and then stood around impatiently while Sam got her stuff together. He’d already put his bike in the back of her car and wanted to see what he could find in the woods.
“So, where exactly do you think you lost it?” she said as they trekked through the underbrush.
“I think it was somewhere around here. See, there’s the tree I was leaning against when the wolf attacked me.” Just then, Scott saw a bit of red out of the corner of his eye and remembered the boy that he’d seen right before the wolf had bitten him. He paused. “You look over here. I’ll go check out that tree.” Scott rushed over the tree and then slowed down as he got there, whispering, “Hey, are you there? I saw you last night, didn’t I?”
But it wasn’t the boy from the other night who appeared from behind the tree. It was an older guy wearing a leather jacket and an angry look. “Here.” He threw Scott’s inhaler at him. “I don’t know what the hell you were doing out here last night, but don’t come out here again. It’s dangerous.” He growled at him and Scott hurriedly backed away.
“Do you know who that was?” Samantha asked excitedly after the guy had disappeared back into the woods.
“Uh, some scary dude who looked like he wanted to kill me?”
Samantha laughed. “That was Derek Hale. Don’t you remember the Hales? Everyone in the family except for him and his sister died in a huge fire. I think their house was somewhere out here. Or they owned a bunch of land that was next to the reserve or something like that. I wonder what he’s doing back in town?” They started walking back to Sam’s car, but Scott saw that same flash of red again one more time.
“Did you see that?” he hissed.
“See what?”
“Over there,” Scott pointed, and the flash of red appeared again.
“I don’t know, maybe someone else is out here? Do you want to go say hi or something?”
“Yeah. That’s exactly what I want to do. C’mon.” Scott started jogging in the direction of the red, dragging Samantha behind him.
Once he got closer to where he thought he’d seen the flash of red, he looked around again. The trees there were all scratched up. He was examining the scratches in one of the trees when he heard someone clear their throat. It was Sam.
“This place is creepy. Let’s get out of here, okay?”
Scott nodded and made a note of where those trees were. He’d come back later to have another look.
But he wasn’t able to come back later. He’d ended up staying late at the animal clinic helping out Allison and had even managed to get a date with her for the next night. And then there was his lovely wake-up call that morning. Well, at least he knew for sure that whatever had happened, there had been a wolf. A very large wolf.
When he told Samantha about it that day at school she just nodded in agreement. “After seeing those scratch marks in those trees yesterday I went and looked up some stuff about the reserve. It seems that a little while after the Hale fire there was a string of wolf attacks. At first it was just other animals, but some people got attacked too. Apparently the old sheriff’s son was one of the people who got attacked. He said it was a huge wolf and the bites on him matched. He died of his wounds, though. It’s a pretty gruesome story. I think you should definitely stay out of those woods. Especially with that body they found.”
“That kid, do you know what he looked like?”
“No, but I’m sure you could find a picture. There was a whole article about him after he died. The sheriff left town after what happened. Seriously, it’s like you don’t actually live in this town. Don’t you remember Sheriff Stilinski’s Halloween Safety talks from elementary school?”
“Oh yeah. I thought they stopped giving those to us because they thought we were too old for them.”
Samantha just rolled her eyes and sighed. “Whatever. Apparently the Hale family was known for being super weird, so I wouldn’t be too creeped out by how Derek was yesterday. Now, tell me what you’re going to do for your date with Allison tonight.”
Running home later that night Scott wished he’d been more into fantasy, maybe then he would have figured out what was going on before he’d had to rush out of the party to keep from eating people. And maybe Derek wouldn’t have looked at him like he was a complete idiot. But at least Derek had helped him escape. Though Scott had seen that flash of red again while they were running.
Scott thought about it more and more over the weekend. Maybe Derek knew who that kid was. He did seem to hang out in the woods an awful lot. He decided he’d go out to the old Hale place the next day to see what was going on.
As he approached the burnt out husk of the Hale house, Scott started the feel somewhat nervous. The place was pretty creepy and it’s not like Derek was really all that friendly to him. On the other hand, he had talked about it being a gift, so maybe he’d be willing to give Scott instructions on how to use it?
Once he got to the porch though, he paused. What the fuck was he going to do, knock on the door and hope someone answered? And right as he was about to step onto the porch, because hey, maybe Derek would answer, he heard someone say sadly, “He got you, didn’t he?”
Scott spun around, almost planting his foot into a hole in the porch. It was the boy from the other night. Except he really couldn’t be, because he looked just like Stiles Stilinski, the sheriff’s dead son.
“Um, I guess? If you mean I got attacked by a really big wolf after you told me to run.” Scott walked down the steps towards the boy.
“I wish I’d been able to warn you sooner. But I only just saw you. But hey, at least you made it.” He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably and Scott saw a bite on his wrist that looked like the one Scott had gotten on his stomach. “I wasn’t quite so lucky.”
As Scott approached the boy he saw that he wasn’t quite solid. Scott could see the trees behind the boy when the sun shined on him in a certain way.
“You’re Stiles Stilinski, aren’t you? The sheriff’s son.”
The boy shrugged. “Yup, that’s me. The sheriff’s son. It didn’t make me very popular in high school, let me tell you. But hey, those things don’t really matter all that much when you’re a ghost and can only go places that you went when you were alive. Except that I still can’t go to the parties.” He frowned at that and then laughed. “Though I did get to go to the one on Friday. I went there once with my dad on a call when I was little. Sorry your date ended so badly.”
Scott shrugged. There wasn’t much he could do about it other than grovel to Allison at school on Monday. Hopefully his puppy dog eyes would gain her forgiveness.
Just then Scott heard a car coming up the driveway. He froze and looked around. Stiles just laughed.
“Oh, don’t worry. He’s always like that. He was pretty freaked out when I showed up too. I’ll deal with him.”
Derek was just getting out of his car, frowning, when Stiles appeared next to him. He jumped, startled and then smiled and went to push Stiles in the shoulder, freezing at the last minute, as if remembering that Stiles wasn’t really there. Derek’s frown returned, even deeper than before. Scott stared, confused.
Stiles smiled slightly at Derek, lightly patting him on the shoulder, even though Scott could see he wasn’t really connecting with Derek’s body. He then pointed over at Scott and started waving his hands around. Derek just kept frowning, especially whenever he looked over at Scott, but his frown was less than it had been after his failed touch to Stiles.
Derek closed the car door and started walking towards Scott, a determined look on his face. He stood in front of Scott, glaring at him. “Stiles here tells me that you’ve come for my help. Now, I don’t usually help out stupid teenage boys…” Stiles laughed at that, earning him a glare from Derek. Stiles just help up his hands in surrender and motioned for Derek to go on. “But given that the police are already looking for the wolf that got Stiles, it’d probably be better if you didn’t start leaving them clues too.”
Then Derek proceeded into the house, not even waiting for Scott to reply. Scott just stood there. What exactly was he supposed to do now?
“Go on, follow him into the house,” Stiles urged, making shooing motions at Scott. “No seriously, he’s super bad at the whole communication thing. He wants you to go in. The only thing he ever really does say is if he wants you to leave. He yelled at me for a whole day when I first showed up.” Stiles gave Scott a sad smile.
Scott shuffled his way back towards the house, occasionally looking back at Stiles, who kept making encouraging motions towards the house and giving Scott thumbs up. Scott looked back one last time right before he was about to push open the charred door, but Stiles had disappeared. He took a deep breath, gathering his courage to talk to Derek in the creepy burnt out husk of his old house, only to jump in shock as the door opened on its own to reveal Stiles behind it.
“Yes! It worked.” Stiles was doing a victory dance, shimmying his hips and thrusting his fists into the air. He looked up at Scott, and noticing his shocked face said, “Sorry, did I scare you? I’ve been working on trying to move physical objects. And it worked!” He let out a whoop and jumped into the air. If he’d been real the floorboards probably wouldn’t have been too happy with his landing.
Scott smiled awkwardly at Stiles. “So um, where’s Derek?”
“Stiles, stop creeping the kid out and bring him in here. Watch out for the floorboards, some of them are weak.” Derek’s voice rang out from a room to the left of the door.
As Scott walked towards where Derek was he looked around the burnt house. It wasn’t as bad as Scott thought it would have been. It even looked like Derek had been fixing it up.
Seeing Scott looking around Stiles said, “You should have seen what the place looked like when he first came back. He just sat here all day and brooded. He flipped a shit when I showed up. Thankfully I was able to talk some sense into him and well, at least the staircase is stable now.”
Scott just nodded in response. “So uh, help?” he said with a shrug once he’d reached Derek.
“Ugh, you just have no idea how lucky you are, do you?” Derek buried his face in his hands and growled. He looked over at Stiles with pain in his eyes.
Stiles wrung his hands. “Uh, maybe you should come back another time, okay, Scott? I just don’t think this is a good time for Derek. Just like um, be careful? Try not to eat anyone, okay?” Stiles ushered Scott out the door. He paused on the doorstep and then whispered, “Meet me in Harris’s room after school on Monday, okay? I’ll tell you everything then.”
Scott nodded, bewildered. He got on his bike, sparing one last look at the burnt remains of Derek’s house before riding his bike home.
The next day Scott was impatient for the day to end.
“I know you’re really excited for lacrosse practice, Scott, but you’re watching the clock a bit too intensely. It’s not going to move any faster,” Samantha hissed at him during history class.
At that moment the bell rang and Scott jumped, the sound startling to his still overly sensitive ears.
“Still having trouble?” Samantha asked worriedly. “What did your mom say?”
“Huh? Oh, right. Uh, she said my ears were fine, nothing to be worried about and that I’ve just got really good hearing.”
“And what about the bite?”
Scott lifted up his shirt to show her. “All healed up and barely a scar. You need to stop worrying so much. I’ll see you at practice, right?”
“Of course. I couldn’t miss my best friend finally getting off the bench. Though I will miss being able to do my homework without worrying about missing some amazing move of yours. Your tryout was pretty crazy.” She laughed and turned to go into her next class, waving at him. “Later alligator. Last class of the day.”
Despite Samantha’s admonitions, Scott barely heard a word of what his teacher said during math class. He hoped it hadn’t been anything too important.
As soon as the bell rung Scott dashed out of class. He headed straight for the chemistry classroom. It was thankfully empty. Apparently there wasn’t a class there at the end of the day.
“Hey,” Stiles said, appearing next to Scott. Scott jumped in surprise, his eyes flashing gold. “Woah, man. Calm down, no need to wolf out. Take deep breaths, okay?” Stiles examined Scott’s face. “Good. Your eyes are going back to normal.”
“That whole appearing out of nowhere thing is seriously unnerving,” Scott gasped, leaning on one of the tables and holding his hand to his chest as he took deep breaths.
“Sorry,” Stiles shrugged. “It’s a lot easier than like, letting everyone see me.” He gestured to himself, and Scott could see the late afternoon sun filtering through him. “Anyways, down to business. I hear you have lacrosse practice to get to so I won’t be too long. I used to play lacrosse, you know? I wasn’t too good at it though. Derek was a lot better. It was fun just being on the team though, even if I barely made it off the bench.”
Scott nodded. “Yeah, that was me up until well, Wednesday. I guess that’s what Derek meant by it being a gift? How it’s helped me with lacrosse and my asthma and stuff?”
“Yeah. Pretty much. But also, well, the bite, it doesn’t always take.” Stiles looked down at his feet, and rubbed at his wrist. “That’s what happened to me. That’s what Derek meant by you being lucky. Of course, you just got bit the once.” Stiles winced in remembered pain.
“Shit man. I mean, Samantha said it was bad, but it’s not like there was all that much detail in any of the articles.”
“No, there probably wouldn’t have been. My dad was well-liked and I don’t think they would have wanted to hurt him by publishing the details.” Stiles smiled sadly. “I just wish I’d figured out how to do this,” he gestured at himself “before he left town. I wish I could have said goodbye, given him some peace.”
Scott went to pat Stiles on the shoulder and then stopped, his hands hovering ineffectually in the air between them.
“So yeah. Now you know why Derek is so sad and angry and frowny all the time. Family, dead. Me, dead. And attacked by an unknown werewolf. He came back to town because his sister said she’d found something out about the fire, but now she’s disappeared too. And there’s a wolf out there biting teenage boys again. So like, he’s pretty freaked out, you know? He’ll probably grill you about the wolf at some point in his usual sourwolf manner. Try not to piss him off if you can, he’s pretty freaked out right now. Especially since they’re calling the body they found an animal attack and they’ve yet to find the other half.”
Scott just nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. It’d be nice to have some help though, it’s not like I’ve been through this before.”
“I’ll talk him round. Don’t be freaked out if he shows up on your windowsill in the middle of the night though. He used to do that to me all the time. He’s pretty bad with the whole normal behavior thing. Now you’d better get to practice before you’re missed. If I remember right, Coach Finstock is pretty grouchy.” Stiles made shooing motions at Scott.
“Alright, I’m going,” Scott said to him, but he had already gone. Scott shook his head in disbelief. “Fucking ghosts.”
After that it was just a matter of making it through lacrosse practice without killing Jackson, who was an insufferable asshole. Allison cheering for him was pretty nice though, and Samantha waved at him every once in a while.
That night while Scott was lying in bed about to go to sleep he heard a thump next to his window. When he looked over he saw glowing blue eyes. He rolled out of his bed and felt himself wolfing out. He looked at the window and saw Derek smirking at him. He motioned for Scott to open his window. Slowly. Scott moved over to the window, taking deep breaths like Stiles had taught him. His claws had retracted by the time he made it over to the window. Derek looked meaningfully at his hands.
“Good. It seems like you’ve got at least something down. Probably not enough for full moons, but at least enough for when you’re startled. For full moons you’re going to need an anchor. Something that you can concentrate on, that will keep you human and in control. Think about that. In the meantime, just worry about not wolfing out and not getting killed by hunters.” With that pronouncement, Derek leapt off Scott’s roof and disappeared into the woods across the street within a manner of seconds. Scott just closed his window and flopped back onto his bed. He had a date with Allison this weekend and if he could manage to make it through the week without wolfing out he could probably make it through dinner with her family.
It all went to hell the next day, though. Samantha rushed up to him after homeroom. “They found the other half of the body. It’s Laura Hale. They took Derek in for questioning.”
“Shit, really?” Scott asked, his eyes wide. “Poor guy, everyone in his family is dead.”
“Not true,” Samantha countered. “His uncle survived the fire.”
“Since when did you become such an expert on the Hales?” Scott looked at her accusingly, but it only made him look like a confused puppy.
Samantha patted him on the head, ruffling his hair. Scott shook his head and tried to fix his hair as she spoke. “I looked it all up after we saw Derek that time in the woods.”
Scott grunted in response, finishing patting his hair down. “Where did you find it?”
“Same place as last time. The main writer for the town newspaper was a serious gossipmonger back in the day. Either that or our town has become decidedly less interesting in the last five years.”
“Probably both. There hasn’t been all that much written about the body, has there?”
“Not yet, but I’m sure there will be now that they know who it is.”
They separated for class. They only had history and chemistry together. Scott was taking a bathroom break during math when Stiles popped up next to him. Thankfully he was washing his hands; otherwise it would have been seriously embarrassing.
“Some warning would have been nice. Even fake walking out of a stall would have worked.” Scott threw away the shredded towel he’d been using to dry his hands and took another one.
Stiles had a thunderous look on his face. “He didn’t do it. He’s fucking wrecked over the news and they drag him in and accuse him of killing his sister. What, like he wasn’t going to freak out when he found her body?” Stiles ran his hands through his short cropped hair. “I wish my dad was still the sheriff. He knew Derek. He knew he’d never kill his sister.”
“Yeah, I heard. But didn’t they say it was an animal attack? Why would they bring Derek in unless…” Scott trailed off.
“No, it’s nothing like that. Hopefully. I think. The new sheriff is just as clueless about the Hales as my dad was. It’s more like that they found him with her body. It just didn’t look good.”
“Well shit. Maybe you should like, um, I don’t know, shove the coroner’s report in their faces?”
Stiles barked a laugh. “I’m sure they’ll let him go. As long as he doesn’t maul anyone. Which he might.” Stiles paused and took a deep breath. “I just couldn’t stand being there any more, watching them interrogate him. He just, the anger. It’s not really anger. It’s just that he’s super faily at emotions and instead of like, expressing his sadness, he gets angry and looks like he’s going to murder people. Which isn’t really the best look for when you’re being questioned about the death of your sister.”
“But hey, he’s still got his uncle, right? My friend said that his uncle survived the fire.”
“Kind of,” Stiles sighed. “He’s like a comatose burn victim. Not too much in the way of comfort there. I do what I can, but like, I’m dead too, you know? Sometimes I think he’d be better off if I wasn’t there to remind him.”
Scott had no idea what to say to that. Thankfully someone walked in the door at that moment and Stiles disappeared. Scott headed back to class and once again, was too preoccupied with what was going on to pay attention to class.
Derek was out of jail by the end of the week and spitting mad. And vehemently against Scott having dinner with Allison’s family.
“But I can like, found out what they know and stuff. I feel like he’d be trying to kill me if he knew who I was,” Scott insisted.
“And what if it’s a trap?” Derek snarled.
“It’ll be fine,” Scott whined. “They’ll be more suspicious if I don’t show up. And then I’ll never get to go on a date with Allison ever again.”
“Of course you care more about the girl,” Derek huffed sarcastically.
Stiles gave him a look and Derek’s frown increased. “And that’s exactly why he shouldn’t be going,” he hissed to Stiles.
“Of course I care about Allison. What kind of a boyfriend would I be if I ditched dinner with her parents?”
“A live one?” Stiles quipped.
Derek eventually gave in and then it ended up being a good thing because they needed Scott to get the wolfsbane bullet Derek had been shot with.
“Scott, have you found it yet? Derek is insisting that I chop off his arm and hello? I’ve only just mastered moving doors and small objects. I really don’t think that I could operate the creepy little saw he keeps shoving at me. Oh fuck, he’s passed out. You better find an excuse and get here quick!”
Which then led to the horribly embarrassing condom incident and Scott being in trouble with her parents anyways. But hey, at least they weren’t actively trying to kill him like they would be if they knew he was the beta. They were just glaring daggers instead of throwing them.
But then the alpha began to become more aggressive and so did the Argents. Kate showed up and wasn’t that a shitshow. Derek finding out the Alpha was his uncle crushed him. Scott didn’t see him for days after, and all Stiles would say was “He’s lost a lot. He just needs some time to come to terms with it all.”
And then he just disappeared. Stiles was frantic. “Scott, you have to help me find him. I’m sure the Argents have him. You have no idea what Kate is capable of, that hussy. Taking advantage of young boys during times of sexual indecision. She is pure evil,” Stiles hissed.
“But I have to go to the dance,” Scott whined. “Allison will be in danger if I don’t keep her safe from Peter.”
“None of us are safe from Peter! He killed me! Do you really think he’ll stop before he gets what he wants?” Stiles yelled. The leaves on the forest floor rustled in the sudden breeze. “What about your mom? Do you think she’s safe from him? The only way to stop him is to get Derek and kill him. He’s fucking crazy. Who the hell thinks it’s a good idea to bite their nephew’s boyfriend after his entire family’s been killed? The crazy’s just been lying dormant and getting crazier!” By this time the leaves were flying through the air, as if they were caught in a strong gust of wind.
“Stiles, calm down!” Scott yelled as the wind picked up.
Stiles looked hard at Scott. “How can I calm down? The person who murdered me is still out there and the only person who still cares about me is missing!” And then he noticed the wind. “Shit. I didn’t-.” The wind immediately died down and the leaves slowly floated back down. “I just, fuck.” He buried his face in his hands. “Will you help me, please?” He looked pleadingly at Scott.
“Fine. But I still need to go to the dance. You said so yourself, Peter will do anything to get what he wants. He’ll probably be looking for some way to draw me out and at least if I’m at the dance I can keep him away from a gym full of high schoolers and draw him away.”
Stiles nodded. “Fine. I’ll keep looking for Derek. I’ll look everywhere I can and if I don’t find him you have to go the places I can’t. Number one probably being the Argent house.”
So Scott went to the dance and danced with Danny and then there were two cars coming at him and when he looked up he saw Allison’s horrified face. So he ran. He ran until he found himself in the woods outside Derek’s house. As he paused to look around Stiles appeared.
“She has him. That fucking bitch has him and there’s nothing I can do!” The wind began rising.
“Stiles, where is he? I can help. I need his help if we’re going to get rid of Peter.”
“In the basement. Of his house. The fucking bitch has him captive in his own fucking house. I’ll show you how to get in.”
Scott followed Stiles to a tunnel outside the house. “Just go through there. You’ll probably be able to hear him soon.” Stiles shuddered. “I can’t go in that way. If I hadn’t heard him…” He trailed off, looking miserable.
“I’ll go and get him Stiles. There’s only so much she can do against two werewolves, even if Derek is tied up.”
Stiles nodded and gritted his teeth. “Okay. I’ll be here, waiting. Good luck.”
And then it was up to Scott to save the day. Fuck. Stiles was right though, it was easy to hear the sounds of Kate toying with Derek. He grabbed the taser she’d left by the door, snuck up behind her and shocked her. While she was writhing on the ground Scott quickly moved to help Derek.
“Scott, thank god. I was worried you wouldn’t figure it out.”
“Figure what out? Stiles told me where you were. Oh hey, my cell phone!”
Derek rolled his eyes and then collapsed onto the floor as Scott released the final shackle holding him in place.
“Fuck, c’mon Derek. We’ve got to get out of here before she wakes up.” Scott heaved Derek up off the floor and slung him over his shoulder, stumbling towards where he’d come in. Thankfully it was sloped, so Scott didn’t have to worry about dragging Derek up a flight of stairs. And then they were out in the fresh air and Stiles was there and Derek was resting less of his weight on Scott. They started making their way back to the house, towards Derek’s car. And then Allison showed up.
“Allison, I’m so glad-” Scott broke off when she fired two arrows at Derek.
“What are you doing?”
And then Kate appeared from behind her. “We’re catching ourselves some werewolves,” she sneered. She nodded at Allison and Allison let off another arrow, this one letting off a burst of light. Scott lifted his hands to shield his eyes, letting Derek fall to the ground.
“We’ve caught them. What do we do now? Is my dad coming?” Allison asked.
“We kill them.”
“What? You never said anything about that? We’re only supposed to do that if they kill people.”
“That’s right,” said Allison’s dad. Scott turned towards him, bewildered. Where had he come from all of a sudden? “And you’ve certainly killed people Kate. There were children in that house. Human children. Making you every bit as bad as the Alpha.”
And then they all heard the growl. Scott turned and saw Peter in his Alpha form behind Kate. Mr. Argent started to move for his gun, but the Alpha was faster and knocked him to the ground, grabbing Kate and moving into the house.
“No!” Allison screamed and ran towards her father, kneeling beside him.
Mr, Argent was slowly getting up. “Where’s Kate?”
“It took her into the house,” Allison startled to babble about how Kate had told her about werewolves, but was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream. Tears started flowing from her face. She buried her face in her father’s shoulder and started to sob. Scott moved towards her, but stopped when Mr. Argent glared at him.
“Ding dong, the witch is dead,” Stiles deadpanned from next to him. “Now for the Wicked Witch of the West. I don’t think it’ll be nearly as easy.”
Scott just started at him incredulously. “What?”
“Are you honestly surprised that I’m glad she’s dead? All of this is pretty much her fault. She fucked with Derek, killed his family, made Peter go crazy, then he killed me and started killing everyone who was involved in the fire. I’d say the big bad is dead, but we’ve still got a crazy man-eating werewolf on the loose.”
Scott opened his mouth to reply, but Peter emerged from the house then, in human form.
“Oh, hello,” he smiled at them all as he licked Kate’s blood off his fingers. “I didn’t realize I had an audience.” He bowed. “Now, who wants to be in my pack? Any takers? Maybe you?” He pointed at Allison. “Wouldn’t you like to be strong and powerful? No longer helpless? And even better, you’d get to be with your precious Scott. Stiles, I’m sorry you didn’t make it. It would have been so nice for you to have been part of the pack.”
Just then Derek lunged at him. In an instant Peter was in his alpha form again and was tossing Derek into the woods. Scott stood there shocked for a moment before shifting and throwing himself at Peter. He was thrown just as far as Derek, but he managed to land on his feet. He looked over to where Derek had landed and saw that he’d been knocked unconscious.
“That is enough!” Stiles yelled, lit by a fierce blue light. “Yes, your whole family was killed by this horrible woman. But she’s dead now.” As he screamed at Peter the wind started picking up.
Allison and her father started moving towards their weapons, but Peter was circling them, preventing them from getting to them.
“Oh please, just keep him distracted,” Scott whispered to himself as he slowly crawled back over. He saw Allison’s crossbow lying near where he’d been standing earlier. But the wind kept picking up. At first it was just the leaves blowing around, but then the trees started moving, and Scott was having trouble walking towards Allison, the wind pushing him back. The wind was starting to form into a cyclone, centered around Stiles as he yelled, his voice still audible over the increasing roar of the wind.
“You’ve gotten what you wanted,” Stiles roared. Peter lunged at Stiles, but the wind threw him violently into a nearby tree.
While Peter was momentarily incapacitated Scott rushed over to Allison and her father and helped them both up. “I trust you,” he said as he handed Allison her crossbow. Allison just nodded in response and braced herself, aiming towards where Peter was shaking himself off. By this time Derek was conscious again and staring at Stiles with wide eyes. Scott saw him say “Stiles, no,” but the words were lost to the roar of the wind.
Peter was back to circling them all, ignoring Stiles for the time being. Just as he was rearing up to attack, Allison shot off an arrow. She reloaded as quickly as possible and shot another one at him, this time one of the flash grenade ones. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as Peter howled in pain. He lunged at Allison, but all of a sudden Stiles was there, hurling him back into a tree. Scott winced as he heard a sickening crack. Peter had turned back to human, which either meant he was seriously injured or unconscious.
The blue glow emitting from Stiles became brighter, his eyes rolling back into his head. The wind was becoming faster and faster. Allison clung to Scott.
“Stiles!” Derek’s voice rang out. He started walking towards Stiles, fighting against the wind. When the wind became too much he started crawling on all fours, using his claws to keep him from being blown away. Finally he made it inside the cyclone. Scott saw him reach out towards Stiles and touch his hand. Derek’s hand went through Stiles’s, but it was enough to shock Stiles out of his trance. The wind stopped, leaving a deafening silence in its wake, the loudest sound that of Derek’s breathing.
“What? What have I done?” Stiles whispered into the silence.
“It’s okay,” Derek whispered back. “You saved us.”
“But what about Peter?” Stiles looked at Derek with wide, innocent eyes.
“I’m right here,” Peter said, all of a sudden at Derek’s side. He drew back his clawed hand to attack Derek, but Derek was faster, slashing through the burnt flesh of Peter’s chest. Peter stumbled back, holding his hand to his chest, the blood gushing out of his wound. Derek slashed at Peter again, opening his throat as he fell to the ground. Allison buried her face in Scott’s chest. The sound of blood gurling in Peter’s throat was almost deafening. Everyone just stood there listening, until Peter stopped making any sound. At the moment when Peter ceased breathing, Derek’s eyes flashed red. Scott was so focused on Peter and Derek that he didn’t notice Stiles was glowing again until he was floating above them.
“Stiles! Stiles, talk to me,” Derek cried.
“I think it’s time for me to go,” Stiles whispered in shock. “Everything’s going to be okay now. You’ll be okay without me Derek. You managed without me all these years. And you have a pack again. You can do this. I believe in you.” The light illuminating Stiles started to fade. Stiles became less and less visible as it went, until all that was left was the afterglow in Scott’s vision from how bright he had been.
Derek was silent, staring in shock at the place where Stiles had been. He paused to a moment, as if he was about to say something. But then he shook his head and dashed off into the woods. Scott saw him shift and watched Derek run until he couldn’t see him anymore. Then he dropped heavily down on the ground, exhausted. Allison sat down beside him and took his hand in hers. “Now what?” she asked.
“Now we set some ground rules,” Mr. Argent growled from behind them.
Author's note: In my head in this universe this is why Derek is recruiting all the bb!wolves. Because he is sad and lonely and misses Stiles. I plan on writing a companion piece from Derek's POV starting with them in high school.
Rating: PG-13 for cursing and werewolf violence
Length: ~7.5 k
Summary: Season 1 AU where Stiles is a ghost. For the Teen Wolf Reverse Big Bang. Artwork here http://puckboum.livejournal.com/5913.html
Scott couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him. He zipped up his hoodie and threw the hood over his head as he continued walking through the woods. It was right before the start of the school year and it was already starting to get chilly at night. Scott stopped short as he saw police lights in the woods up ahead. Technically no one was supposed to be in the nature preserve after dark, but it was a shortcut that Scott had been taking home for years. Scott headed deeper into the woods, changing his path just enough to avoid the police. He turned around often as he walked, still feeling the eyes upon his back, expecting to see a police officer behind him.
“You shouldn’t be out here.”
Scott whirled around towards where he thought the voice had come from, but he didn’t see anything.
“It’s not safe. He’s still out here,” a pale boy around Scott’s age stepped out from behind a tree. He was wearing a red hoodie and had short brown hair.
“What? Who are you?” Scott moved towards him, but he darted back behind the tree. Scott ran towards where he had last seen the boy, but there was no trace of him. He looked around, spinning in a circle, bewildered at the sudden disappearance of the boy.
All of a sudden he heard a howl and shivered.
“Run,” he heard whispered in his ear. Scott bolted.
After a few minutes he stopped to lean against a tree, wheezing as he reached for his asthma inhaler. He was only able to get in one huff of his medicine before he was tackled by a large dog, making his inhaler fly out of his hand. At least, he thought it was a dog, but then he felt it bite him. Scott went rigid with the pain, and then all of a sudden the dog was gone and Scott heard howling. Change that to wolf. Scott had just been attacked by a fucking wolf. He was never walking through the woods alone again.
Scott pushed himself off the ground and looked at the wound. It was oozing blood, making his pants stick to him from where the blood was dripping down his side. He pressed his shirt into the wound and continued on his way home, keeping a wary eye out for the wolf, all thoughts of a pale boy’s warnings gone from his head in the wake of his attack.
The next morning Scott realized he had lost his inhaler in the woods the night before. He groaned as he searched through his room for his back-up inhaler. Lacrosse tryouts were that afternoon and he wouldn’t even be able to take the field without it. Giving up, Scott figured he’d hope for the best.
He went into the bathroom to check his wound, hoping it’d be smaller than he remembered and it wouldn’t stop him from playing. Scott lifted up his shirt and looked at the bandage he had over the bite. It had some blood on it, but not nearly as much as Scott had worried there’d be. It hadn’t even gotten onto his shirt, which meant he wouldn’t have to deal with questions from his Mom when she did the laundry. He peeled away the bandage, wincing as the tape separated from his skin. He looked at the wound. There was dried blood covering it, so Scott took a wet paper towel and wiped it off. He looked down at his now clean skin and did a double take. There was nothing there but a raised scab, half the size of what Scott was expecting. Scott poked at it. He’d remembered the bite being twice the size last night and a whole lot deeper. Well, at least it wouldn’t stop him from playing lacrosse, even if his lack of inhaler might.
When Scott got to school Samantha came over to him, asking, “Did you hear about the body in the woods?”
“Oh, so that’s why there were all the police cars.”
Samantha gave Scott the same “you are an idiot look” she’d been giving him since first grade. They’d known each other since kindergarten, but it’d taken her a year to perfect the look. “Were you walking through the woods at night again? I told you there’s all sorts of animals out there. Don’t you remember that time Jackson’s dog got gored by a deer?”
“Uh, well, I was kind of attacked by a wolf last night,” he admitted sheepishly.
“There are no wolves in California. It must have been a rabid dog. Have your mom look at it and go for rabies shots.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Seriously, your mom is a nurse. Don’t you know that you should get something like that checked out right away?”
“Yeah, but that’s the thing. It was this huge wound last night and I was bleeding everywhere, but this morning, look.” Scott pulled up his shirt to show Samantha his bite.
“Uh Scott, the only thing I see is a tiny scar and your abs. Now put your shirt down, people are starting to stare. Namely, that new girl.”
“She’s cute, isn’t she?” Scott smiled shyly. “I gave her a pen in class and she smiled at me.”
“Oh my god, you’re such a dork,” Samantha sighed.
“Yeah, whatever. You’re just gonna have to stand back once I make the lacrosse team and have my very own fanclub.”
Samantha laughed. “I will believe that when you can run a lap in gym without needing your inhaler. And since when did you want to be Jackson? When he actually notices your existence he makes your life, our lives miserable.” Samantha poked Scott where his injured used to be. “C’mon. We’ve got chemistry.”
As they walked down the hall Scott heard Allison, the new girl, whisper to Lydia, “Scott’s pretty cute. It’s too bad he’s got a girlfriend.” He only heard Lydia’s reply of “Who?” before the bell rang, echoing in Scott’s ear as if it was going off right next to him. He winced in pain and put his hands over his ears until it subsided.
“You okay?” Sam was looking at him with worry. “I don’t think noise sensitivity is a symptom of rabies, but maybe you should have your mom check it out.” She pulled Scott’s hands away from his ears and examined them. “I don’t see anything wrong, so it’s time for chemistry.” She marched him into the classroom.
They sat next to each other so she poked him every once in a while to keep him awake. Chemistry was pretty boring stuff. Except for when they got to you know, actually do chemistry. With the chemicals and stuff. Scott wasn’t actually that bad at chemistry. He just found it kind of boring and a bit confusing with all the equations and whatnot. How was he supposed to know how calcium, carbon and oxygen combined? Each reaction was different than the other one.
Of course Sam just rolled her eyes whenever Scott said anything like that. “You’re supposed to remember. Harris gave us a list today of all the reactions we’re expected to know.”
Scott shrugged and gave her his usual smile. “Lacrosse tryouts are after school today. I’m nervous okay?”
Samantha just smiled and laughed. “Nervous about what? Worried they won’t remember where you sit on the bench? You know your asthma’s too bad for you to do much running around.”
“Well, maybe this time will be different. I’m feeling really good today.”
“Well, okay. I guess I can come and cheer you on. At least then Allison will finally know your name,” she teased.
Scott felt confident in the goal, watching as each ball came at him. When it was time for him to play it was like he could sense exactly how each player was going to move and countered them perfectly each time. He was amazed by how well he’d done, standing on the field in shock after the practice game was over.
“Oh my god, Scott! That was amazing!” Samantha ran up to him and enveloped him in a hug. “I can’t believe you did that!”
“Neither can I. I just, I don’t know, went with my instincts.”
“Well, good instincts. Let’s go get some pizza to celebrate. My treat.”
“Yeah, that sounds good. Let me just get my stuff.” Scott walked off the field, waving to Allison when she looked his way, blushing just a bit as he made his way into the locker room.
Once they were settled at a booth at the pizza place Samantha gave him a long took. “So…why didn’t you tell me you were on new asthma meds?” Samantha asked. “They’re really working well for you.”
“I’m not. I lost my inhaler last night when I was attacked by that wolf. And before you say anything, it was definitely too big to be a dog and it definitely bit me, even though there’s nothing there now. I have the blood-covered bandages to prove it.”
“Mmmhmm. Well, let’s go find your inhaler at the very least so that once the excitement over your bite dies down you won’t suffocate.”
Scott wolfed down his pizza in a way that only a teenage boy could and then stood around impatiently while Sam got her stuff together. He’d already put his bike in the back of her car and wanted to see what he could find in the woods.
“So, where exactly do you think you lost it?” she said as they trekked through the underbrush.
“I think it was somewhere around here. See, there’s the tree I was leaning against when the wolf attacked me.” Just then, Scott saw a bit of red out of the corner of his eye and remembered the boy that he’d seen right before the wolf had bitten him. He paused. “You look over here. I’ll go check out that tree.” Scott rushed over the tree and then slowed down as he got there, whispering, “Hey, are you there? I saw you last night, didn’t I?”
But it wasn’t the boy from the other night who appeared from behind the tree. It was an older guy wearing a leather jacket and an angry look. “Here.” He threw Scott’s inhaler at him. “I don’t know what the hell you were doing out here last night, but don’t come out here again. It’s dangerous.” He growled at him and Scott hurriedly backed away.
“Do you know who that was?” Samantha asked excitedly after the guy had disappeared back into the woods.
“Uh, some scary dude who looked like he wanted to kill me?”
Samantha laughed. “That was Derek Hale. Don’t you remember the Hales? Everyone in the family except for him and his sister died in a huge fire. I think their house was somewhere out here. Or they owned a bunch of land that was next to the reserve or something like that. I wonder what he’s doing back in town?” They started walking back to Sam’s car, but Scott saw that same flash of red again one more time.
“Did you see that?” he hissed.
“See what?”
“Over there,” Scott pointed, and the flash of red appeared again.
“I don’t know, maybe someone else is out here? Do you want to go say hi or something?”
“Yeah. That’s exactly what I want to do. C’mon.” Scott started jogging in the direction of the red, dragging Samantha behind him.
Once he got closer to where he thought he’d seen the flash of red, he looked around again. The trees there were all scratched up. He was examining the scratches in one of the trees when he heard someone clear their throat. It was Sam.
“This place is creepy. Let’s get out of here, okay?”
Scott nodded and made a note of where those trees were. He’d come back later to have another look.
But he wasn’t able to come back later. He’d ended up staying late at the animal clinic helping out Allison and had even managed to get a date with her for the next night. And then there was his lovely wake-up call that morning. Well, at least he knew for sure that whatever had happened, there had been a wolf. A very large wolf.
When he told Samantha about it that day at school she just nodded in agreement. “After seeing those scratch marks in those trees yesterday I went and looked up some stuff about the reserve. It seems that a little while after the Hale fire there was a string of wolf attacks. At first it was just other animals, but some people got attacked too. Apparently the old sheriff’s son was one of the people who got attacked. He said it was a huge wolf and the bites on him matched. He died of his wounds, though. It’s a pretty gruesome story. I think you should definitely stay out of those woods. Especially with that body they found.”
“That kid, do you know what he looked like?”
“No, but I’m sure you could find a picture. There was a whole article about him after he died. The sheriff left town after what happened. Seriously, it’s like you don’t actually live in this town. Don’t you remember Sheriff Stilinski’s Halloween Safety talks from elementary school?”
“Oh yeah. I thought they stopped giving those to us because they thought we were too old for them.”
Samantha just rolled her eyes and sighed. “Whatever. Apparently the Hale family was known for being super weird, so I wouldn’t be too creeped out by how Derek was yesterday. Now, tell me what you’re going to do for your date with Allison tonight.”
Running home later that night Scott wished he’d been more into fantasy, maybe then he would have figured out what was going on before he’d had to rush out of the party to keep from eating people. And maybe Derek wouldn’t have looked at him like he was a complete idiot. But at least Derek had helped him escape. Though Scott had seen that flash of red again while they were running.
Scott thought about it more and more over the weekend. Maybe Derek knew who that kid was. He did seem to hang out in the woods an awful lot. He decided he’d go out to the old Hale place the next day to see what was going on.
As he approached the burnt out husk of the Hale house, Scott started the feel somewhat nervous. The place was pretty creepy and it’s not like Derek was really all that friendly to him. On the other hand, he had talked about it being a gift, so maybe he’d be willing to give Scott instructions on how to use it?
Once he got to the porch though, he paused. What the fuck was he going to do, knock on the door and hope someone answered? And right as he was about to step onto the porch, because hey, maybe Derek would answer, he heard someone say sadly, “He got you, didn’t he?”
Scott spun around, almost planting his foot into a hole in the porch. It was the boy from the other night. Except he really couldn’t be, because he looked just like Stiles Stilinski, the sheriff’s dead son.
“Um, I guess? If you mean I got attacked by a really big wolf after you told me to run.” Scott walked down the steps towards the boy.
“I wish I’d been able to warn you sooner. But I only just saw you. But hey, at least you made it.” He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably and Scott saw a bite on his wrist that looked like the one Scott had gotten on his stomach. “I wasn’t quite so lucky.”
As Scott approached the boy he saw that he wasn’t quite solid. Scott could see the trees behind the boy when the sun shined on him in a certain way.
“You’re Stiles Stilinski, aren’t you? The sheriff’s son.”
The boy shrugged. “Yup, that’s me. The sheriff’s son. It didn’t make me very popular in high school, let me tell you. But hey, those things don’t really matter all that much when you’re a ghost and can only go places that you went when you were alive. Except that I still can’t go to the parties.” He frowned at that and then laughed. “Though I did get to go to the one on Friday. I went there once with my dad on a call when I was little. Sorry your date ended so badly.”
Scott shrugged. There wasn’t much he could do about it other than grovel to Allison at school on Monday. Hopefully his puppy dog eyes would gain her forgiveness.
Just then Scott heard a car coming up the driveway. He froze and looked around. Stiles just laughed.
“Oh, don’t worry. He’s always like that. He was pretty freaked out when I showed up too. I’ll deal with him.”
Derek was just getting out of his car, frowning, when Stiles appeared next to him. He jumped, startled and then smiled and went to push Stiles in the shoulder, freezing at the last minute, as if remembering that Stiles wasn’t really there. Derek’s frown returned, even deeper than before. Scott stared, confused.
Stiles smiled slightly at Derek, lightly patting him on the shoulder, even though Scott could see he wasn’t really connecting with Derek’s body. He then pointed over at Scott and started waving his hands around. Derek just kept frowning, especially whenever he looked over at Scott, but his frown was less than it had been after his failed touch to Stiles.
Derek closed the car door and started walking towards Scott, a determined look on his face. He stood in front of Scott, glaring at him. “Stiles here tells me that you’ve come for my help. Now, I don’t usually help out stupid teenage boys…” Stiles laughed at that, earning him a glare from Derek. Stiles just help up his hands in surrender and motioned for Derek to go on. “But given that the police are already looking for the wolf that got Stiles, it’d probably be better if you didn’t start leaving them clues too.”
Then Derek proceeded into the house, not even waiting for Scott to reply. Scott just stood there. What exactly was he supposed to do now?
“Go on, follow him into the house,” Stiles urged, making shooing motions at Scott. “No seriously, he’s super bad at the whole communication thing. He wants you to go in. The only thing he ever really does say is if he wants you to leave. He yelled at me for a whole day when I first showed up.” Stiles gave Scott a sad smile.
Scott shuffled his way back towards the house, occasionally looking back at Stiles, who kept making encouraging motions towards the house and giving Scott thumbs up. Scott looked back one last time right before he was about to push open the charred door, but Stiles had disappeared. He took a deep breath, gathering his courage to talk to Derek in the creepy burnt out husk of his old house, only to jump in shock as the door opened on its own to reveal Stiles behind it.
“Yes! It worked.” Stiles was doing a victory dance, shimmying his hips and thrusting his fists into the air. He looked up at Scott, and noticing his shocked face said, “Sorry, did I scare you? I’ve been working on trying to move physical objects. And it worked!” He let out a whoop and jumped into the air. If he’d been real the floorboards probably wouldn’t have been too happy with his landing.
Scott smiled awkwardly at Stiles. “So um, where’s Derek?”
“Stiles, stop creeping the kid out and bring him in here. Watch out for the floorboards, some of them are weak.” Derek’s voice rang out from a room to the left of the door.
As Scott walked towards where Derek was he looked around the burnt house. It wasn’t as bad as Scott thought it would have been. It even looked like Derek had been fixing it up.
Seeing Scott looking around Stiles said, “You should have seen what the place looked like when he first came back. He just sat here all day and brooded. He flipped a shit when I showed up. Thankfully I was able to talk some sense into him and well, at least the staircase is stable now.”
Scott just nodded in response. “So uh, help?” he said with a shrug once he’d reached Derek.
“Ugh, you just have no idea how lucky you are, do you?” Derek buried his face in his hands and growled. He looked over at Stiles with pain in his eyes.
Stiles wrung his hands. “Uh, maybe you should come back another time, okay, Scott? I just don’t think this is a good time for Derek. Just like um, be careful? Try not to eat anyone, okay?” Stiles ushered Scott out the door. He paused on the doorstep and then whispered, “Meet me in Harris’s room after school on Monday, okay? I’ll tell you everything then.”
Scott nodded, bewildered. He got on his bike, sparing one last look at the burnt remains of Derek’s house before riding his bike home.
The next day Scott was impatient for the day to end.
“I know you’re really excited for lacrosse practice, Scott, but you’re watching the clock a bit too intensely. It’s not going to move any faster,” Samantha hissed at him during history class.
At that moment the bell rang and Scott jumped, the sound startling to his still overly sensitive ears.
“Still having trouble?” Samantha asked worriedly. “What did your mom say?”
“Huh? Oh, right. Uh, she said my ears were fine, nothing to be worried about and that I’ve just got really good hearing.”
“And what about the bite?”
Scott lifted up his shirt to show her. “All healed up and barely a scar. You need to stop worrying so much. I’ll see you at practice, right?”
“Of course. I couldn’t miss my best friend finally getting off the bench. Though I will miss being able to do my homework without worrying about missing some amazing move of yours. Your tryout was pretty crazy.” She laughed and turned to go into her next class, waving at him. “Later alligator. Last class of the day.”
Despite Samantha’s admonitions, Scott barely heard a word of what his teacher said during math class. He hoped it hadn’t been anything too important.
As soon as the bell rung Scott dashed out of class. He headed straight for the chemistry classroom. It was thankfully empty. Apparently there wasn’t a class there at the end of the day.
“Hey,” Stiles said, appearing next to Scott. Scott jumped in surprise, his eyes flashing gold. “Woah, man. Calm down, no need to wolf out. Take deep breaths, okay?” Stiles examined Scott’s face. “Good. Your eyes are going back to normal.”
“That whole appearing out of nowhere thing is seriously unnerving,” Scott gasped, leaning on one of the tables and holding his hand to his chest as he took deep breaths.
“Sorry,” Stiles shrugged. “It’s a lot easier than like, letting everyone see me.” He gestured to himself, and Scott could see the late afternoon sun filtering through him. “Anyways, down to business. I hear you have lacrosse practice to get to so I won’t be too long. I used to play lacrosse, you know? I wasn’t too good at it though. Derek was a lot better. It was fun just being on the team though, even if I barely made it off the bench.”
Scott nodded. “Yeah, that was me up until well, Wednesday. I guess that’s what Derek meant by it being a gift? How it’s helped me with lacrosse and my asthma and stuff?”
“Yeah. Pretty much. But also, well, the bite, it doesn’t always take.” Stiles looked down at his feet, and rubbed at his wrist. “That’s what happened to me. That’s what Derek meant by you being lucky. Of course, you just got bit the once.” Stiles winced in remembered pain.
“Shit man. I mean, Samantha said it was bad, but it’s not like there was all that much detail in any of the articles.”
“No, there probably wouldn’t have been. My dad was well-liked and I don’t think they would have wanted to hurt him by publishing the details.” Stiles smiled sadly. “I just wish I’d figured out how to do this,” he gestured at himself “before he left town. I wish I could have said goodbye, given him some peace.”
Scott went to pat Stiles on the shoulder and then stopped, his hands hovering ineffectually in the air between them.
“So yeah. Now you know why Derek is so sad and angry and frowny all the time. Family, dead. Me, dead. And attacked by an unknown werewolf. He came back to town because his sister said she’d found something out about the fire, but now she’s disappeared too. And there’s a wolf out there biting teenage boys again. So like, he’s pretty freaked out, you know? He’ll probably grill you about the wolf at some point in his usual sourwolf manner. Try not to piss him off if you can, he’s pretty freaked out right now. Especially since they’re calling the body they found an animal attack and they’ve yet to find the other half.”
Scott just nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. It’d be nice to have some help though, it’s not like I’ve been through this before.”
“I’ll talk him round. Don’t be freaked out if he shows up on your windowsill in the middle of the night though. He used to do that to me all the time. He’s pretty bad with the whole normal behavior thing. Now you’d better get to practice before you’re missed. If I remember right, Coach Finstock is pretty grouchy.” Stiles made shooing motions at Scott.
“Alright, I’m going,” Scott said to him, but he had already gone. Scott shook his head in disbelief. “Fucking ghosts.”
After that it was just a matter of making it through lacrosse practice without killing Jackson, who was an insufferable asshole. Allison cheering for him was pretty nice though, and Samantha waved at him every once in a while.
That night while Scott was lying in bed about to go to sleep he heard a thump next to his window. When he looked over he saw glowing blue eyes. He rolled out of his bed and felt himself wolfing out. He looked at the window and saw Derek smirking at him. He motioned for Scott to open his window. Slowly. Scott moved over to the window, taking deep breaths like Stiles had taught him. His claws had retracted by the time he made it over to the window. Derek looked meaningfully at his hands.
“Good. It seems like you’ve got at least something down. Probably not enough for full moons, but at least enough for when you’re startled. For full moons you’re going to need an anchor. Something that you can concentrate on, that will keep you human and in control. Think about that. In the meantime, just worry about not wolfing out and not getting killed by hunters.” With that pronouncement, Derek leapt off Scott’s roof and disappeared into the woods across the street within a manner of seconds. Scott just closed his window and flopped back onto his bed. He had a date with Allison this weekend and if he could manage to make it through the week without wolfing out he could probably make it through dinner with her family.
It all went to hell the next day, though. Samantha rushed up to him after homeroom. “They found the other half of the body. It’s Laura Hale. They took Derek in for questioning.”
“Shit, really?” Scott asked, his eyes wide. “Poor guy, everyone in his family is dead.”
“Not true,” Samantha countered. “His uncle survived the fire.”
“Since when did you become such an expert on the Hales?” Scott looked at her accusingly, but it only made him look like a confused puppy.
Samantha patted him on the head, ruffling his hair. Scott shook his head and tried to fix his hair as she spoke. “I looked it all up after we saw Derek that time in the woods.”
Scott grunted in response, finishing patting his hair down. “Where did you find it?”
“Same place as last time. The main writer for the town newspaper was a serious gossipmonger back in the day. Either that or our town has become decidedly less interesting in the last five years.”
“Probably both. There hasn’t been all that much written about the body, has there?”
“Not yet, but I’m sure there will be now that they know who it is.”
They separated for class. They only had history and chemistry together. Scott was taking a bathroom break during math when Stiles popped up next to him. Thankfully he was washing his hands; otherwise it would have been seriously embarrassing.
“Some warning would have been nice. Even fake walking out of a stall would have worked.” Scott threw away the shredded towel he’d been using to dry his hands and took another one.
Stiles had a thunderous look on his face. “He didn’t do it. He’s fucking wrecked over the news and they drag him in and accuse him of killing his sister. What, like he wasn’t going to freak out when he found her body?” Stiles ran his hands through his short cropped hair. “I wish my dad was still the sheriff. He knew Derek. He knew he’d never kill his sister.”
“Yeah, I heard. But didn’t they say it was an animal attack? Why would they bring Derek in unless…” Scott trailed off.
“No, it’s nothing like that. Hopefully. I think. The new sheriff is just as clueless about the Hales as my dad was. It’s more like that they found him with her body. It just didn’t look good.”
“Well shit. Maybe you should like, um, I don’t know, shove the coroner’s report in their faces?”
Stiles barked a laugh. “I’m sure they’ll let him go. As long as he doesn’t maul anyone. Which he might.” Stiles paused and took a deep breath. “I just couldn’t stand being there any more, watching them interrogate him. He just, the anger. It’s not really anger. It’s just that he’s super faily at emotions and instead of like, expressing his sadness, he gets angry and looks like he’s going to murder people. Which isn’t really the best look for when you’re being questioned about the death of your sister.”
“But hey, he’s still got his uncle, right? My friend said that his uncle survived the fire.”
“Kind of,” Stiles sighed. “He’s like a comatose burn victim. Not too much in the way of comfort there. I do what I can, but like, I’m dead too, you know? Sometimes I think he’d be better off if I wasn’t there to remind him.”
Scott had no idea what to say to that. Thankfully someone walked in the door at that moment and Stiles disappeared. Scott headed back to class and once again, was too preoccupied with what was going on to pay attention to class.
Derek was out of jail by the end of the week and spitting mad. And vehemently against Scott having dinner with Allison’s family.
“But I can like, found out what they know and stuff. I feel like he’d be trying to kill me if he knew who I was,” Scott insisted.
“And what if it’s a trap?” Derek snarled.
“It’ll be fine,” Scott whined. “They’ll be more suspicious if I don’t show up. And then I’ll never get to go on a date with Allison ever again.”
“Of course you care more about the girl,” Derek huffed sarcastically.
Stiles gave him a look and Derek’s frown increased. “And that’s exactly why he shouldn’t be going,” he hissed to Stiles.
“Of course I care about Allison. What kind of a boyfriend would I be if I ditched dinner with her parents?”
“A live one?” Stiles quipped.
Derek eventually gave in and then it ended up being a good thing because they needed Scott to get the wolfsbane bullet Derek had been shot with.
“Scott, have you found it yet? Derek is insisting that I chop off his arm and hello? I’ve only just mastered moving doors and small objects. I really don’t think that I could operate the creepy little saw he keeps shoving at me. Oh fuck, he’s passed out. You better find an excuse and get here quick!”
Which then led to the horribly embarrassing condom incident and Scott being in trouble with her parents anyways. But hey, at least they weren’t actively trying to kill him like they would be if they knew he was the beta. They were just glaring daggers instead of throwing them.
But then the alpha began to become more aggressive and so did the Argents. Kate showed up and wasn’t that a shitshow. Derek finding out the Alpha was his uncle crushed him. Scott didn’t see him for days after, and all Stiles would say was “He’s lost a lot. He just needs some time to come to terms with it all.”
And then he just disappeared. Stiles was frantic. “Scott, you have to help me find him. I’m sure the Argents have him. You have no idea what Kate is capable of, that hussy. Taking advantage of young boys during times of sexual indecision. She is pure evil,” Stiles hissed.
“But I have to go to the dance,” Scott whined. “Allison will be in danger if I don’t keep her safe from Peter.”
“None of us are safe from Peter! He killed me! Do you really think he’ll stop before he gets what he wants?” Stiles yelled. The leaves on the forest floor rustled in the sudden breeze. “What about your mom? Do you think she’s safe from him? The only way to stop him is to get Derek and kill him. He’s fucking crazy. Who the hell thinks it’s a good idea to bite their nephew’s boyfriend after his entire family’s been killed? The crazy’s just been lying dormant and getting crazier!” By this time the leaves were flying through the air, as if they were caught in a strong gust of wind.
“Stiles, calm down!” Scott yelled as the wind picked up.
Stiles looked hard at Scott. “How can I calm down? The person who murdered me is still out there and the only person who still cares about me is missing!” And then he noticed the wind. “Shit. I didn’t-.” The wind immediately died down and the leaves slowly floated back down. “I just, fuck.” He buried his face in his hands. “Will you help me, please?” He looked pleadingly at Scott.
“Fine. But I still need to go to the dance. You said so yourself, Peter will do anything to get what he wants. He’ll probably be looking for some way to draw me out and at least if I’m at the dance I can keep him away from a gym full of high schoolers and draw him away.”
Stiles nodded. “Fine. I’ll keep looking for Derek. I’ll look everywhere I can and if I don’t find him you have to go the places I can’t. Number one probably being the Argent house.”
So Scott went to the dance and danced with Danny and then there were two cars coming at him and when he looked up he saw Allison’s horrified face. So he ran. He ran until he found himself in the woods outside Derek’s house. As he paused to look around Stiles appeared.
“She has him. That fucking bitch has him and there’s nothing I can do!” The wind began rising.
“Stiles, where is he? I can help. I need his help if we’re going to get rid of Peter.”
“In the basement. Of his house. The fucking bitch has him captive in his own fucking house. I’ll show you how to get in.”
Scott followed Stiles to a tunnel outside the house. “Just go through there. You’ll probably be able to hear him soon.” Stiles shuddered. “I can’t go in that way. If I hadn’t heard him…” He trailed off, looking miserable.
“I’ll go and get him Stiles. There’s only so much she can do against two werewolves, even if Derek is tied up.”
Stiles nodded and gritted his teeth. “Okay. I’ll be here, waiting. Good luck.”
And then it was up to Scott to save the day. Fuck. Stiles was right though, it was easy to hear the sounds of Kate toying with Derek. He grabbed the taser she’d left by the door, snuck up behind her and shocked her. While she was writhing on the ground Scott quickly moved to help Derek.
“Scott, thank god. I was worried you wouldn’t figure it out.”
“Figure what out? Stiles told me where you were. Oh hey, my cell phone!”
Derek rolled his eyes and then collapsed onto the floor as Scott released the final shackle holding him in place.
“Fuck, c’mon Derek. We’ve got to get out of here before she wakes up.” Scott heaved Derek up off the floor and slung him over his shoulder, stumbling towards where he’d come in. Thankfully it was sloped, so Scott didn’t have to worry about dragging Derek up a flight of stairs. And then they were out in the fresh air and Stiles was there and Derek was resting less of his weight on Scott. They started making their way back to the house, towards Derek’s car. And then Allison showed up.
“Allison, I’m so glad-” Scott broke off when she fired two arrows at Derek.
“What are you doing?”
And then Kate appeared from behind her. “We’re catching ourselves some werewolves,” she sneered. She nodded at Allison and Allison let off another arrow, this one letting off a burst of light. Scott lifted his hands to shield his eyes, letting Derek fall to the ground.
“We’ve caught them. What do we do now? Is my dad coming?” Allison asked.
“We kill them.”
“What? You never said anything about that? We’re only supposed to do that if they kill people.”
“That’s right,” said Allison’s dad. Scott turned towards him, bewildered. Where had he come from all of a sudden? “And you’ve certainly killed people Kate. There were children in that house. Human children. Making you every bit as bad as the Alpha.”
And then they all heard the growl. Scott turned and saw Peter in his Alpha form behind Kate. Mr. Argent started to move for his gun, but the Alpha was faster and knocked him to the ground, grabbing Kate and moving into the house.
“No!” Allison screamed and ran towards her father, kneeling beside him.
Mr, Argent was slowly getting up. “Where’s Kate?”
“It took her into the house,” Allison startled to babble about how Kate had told her about werewolves, but was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream. Tears started flowing from her face. She buried her face in her father’s shoulder and started to sob. Scott moved towards her, but stopped when Mr. Argent glared at him.
“Ding dong, the witch is dead,” Stiles deadpanned from next to him. “Now for the Wicked Witch of the West. I don’t think it’ll be nearly as easy.”
Scott just started at him incredulously. “What?”
“Are you honestly surprised that I’m glad she’s dead? All of this is pretty much her fault. She fucked with Derek, killed his family, made Peter go crazy, then he killed me and started killing everyone who was involved in the fire. I’d say the big bad is dead, but we’ve still got a crazy man-eating werewolf on the loose.”
Scott opened his mouth to reply, but Peter emerged from the house then, in human form.
“Oh, hello,” he smiled at them all as he licked Kate’s blood off his fingers. “I didn’t realize I had an audience.” He bowed. “Now, who wants to be in my pack? Any takers? Maybe you?” He pointed at Allison. “Wouldn’t you like to be strong and powerful? No longer helpless? And even better, you’d get to be with your precious Scott. Stiles, I’m sorry you didn’t make it. It would have been so nice for you to have been part of the pack.”
Just then Derek lunged at him. In an instant Peter was in his alpha form again and was tossing Derek into the woods. Scott stood there shocked for a moment before shifting and throwing himself at Peter. He was thrown just as far as Derek, but he managed to land on his feet. He looked over to where Derek had landed and saw that he’d been knocked unconscious.
“That is enough!” Stiles yelled, lit by a fierce blue light. “Yes, your whole family was killed by this horrible woman. But she’s dead now.” As he screamed at Peter the wind started picking up.
Allison and her father started moving towards their weapons, but Peter was circling them, preventing them from getting to them.
“Oh please, just keep him distracted,” Scott whispered to himself as he slowly crawled back over. He saw Allison’s crossbow lying near where he’d been standing earlier. But the wind kept picking up. At first it was just the leaves blowing around, but then the trees started moving, and Scott was having trouble walking towards Allison, the wind pushing him back. The wind was starting to form into a cyclone, centered around Stiles as he yelled, his voice still audible over the increasing roar of the wind.
“You’ve gotten what you wanted,” Stiles roared. Peter lunged at Stiles, but the wind threw him violently into a nearby tree.
While Peter was momentarily incapacitated Scott rushed over to Allison and her father and helped them both up. “I trust you,” he said as he handed Allison her crossbow. Allison just nodded in response and braced herself, aiming towards where Peter was shaking himself off. By this time Derek was conscious again and staring at Stiles with wide eyes. Scott saw him say “Stiles, no,” but the words were lost to the roar of the wind.
Peter was back to circling them all, ignoring Stiles for the time being. Just as he was rearing up to attack, Allison shot off an arrow. She reloaded as quickly as possible and shot another one at him, this time one of the flash grenade ones. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as Peter howled in pain. He lunged at Allison, but all of a sudden Stiles was there, hurling him back into a tree. Scott winced as he heard a sickening crack. Peter had turned back to human, which either meant he was seriously injured or unconscious.
The blue glow emitting from Stiles became brighter, his eyes rolling back into his head. The wind was becoming faster and faster. Allison clung to Scott.
“Stiles!” Derek’s voice rang out. He started walking towards Stiles, fighting against the wind. When the wind became too much he started crawling on all fours, using his claws to keep him from being blown away. Finally he made it inside the cyclone. Scott saw him reach out towards Stiles and touch his hand. Derek’s hand went through Stiles’s, but it was enough to shock Stiles out of his trance. The wind stopped, leaving a deafening silence in its wake, the loudest sound that of Derek’s breathing.
“What? What have I done?” Stiles whispered into the silence.
“It’s okay,” Derek whispered back. “You saved us.”
“But what about Peter?” Stiles looked at Derek with wide, innocent eyes.
“I’m right here,” Peter said, all of a sudden at Derek’s side. He drew back his clawed hand to attack Derek, but Derek was faster, slashing through the burnt flesh of Peter’s chest. Peter stumbled back, holding his hand to his chest, the blood gushing out of his wound. Derek slashed at Peter again, opening his throat as he fell to the ground. Allison buried her face in Scott’s chest. The sound of blood gurling in Peter’s throat was almost deafening. Everyone just stood there listening, until Peter stopped making any sound. At the moment when Peter ceased breathing, Derek’s eyes flashed red. Scott was so focused on Peter and Derek that he didn’t notice Stiles was glowing again until he was floating above them.
“Stiles! Stiles, talk to me,” Derek cried.
“I think it’s time for me to go,” Stiles whispered in shock. “Everything’s going to be okay now. You’ll be okay without me Derek. You managed without me all these years. And you have a pack again. You can do this. I believe in you.” The light illuminating Stiles started to fade. Stiles became less and less visible as it went, until all that was left was the afterglow in Scott’s vision from how bright he had been.
Derek was silent, staring in shock at the place where Stiles had been. He paused to a moment, as if he was about to say something. But then he shook his head and dashed off into the woods. Scott saw him shift and watched Derek run until he couldn’t see him anymore. Then he dropped heavily down on the ground, exhausted. Allison sat down beside him and took his hand in hers. “Now what?” she asked.
“Now we set some ground rules,” Mr. Argent growled from behind them.
Author's note: In my head in this universe this is why Derek is recruiting all the bb!wolves. Because he is sad and lonely and misses Stiles. I plan on writing a companion piece from Derek's POV starting with them in high school.